Pittsburgh Steelers P Pressley Harvin III made his 2023 preseason debut Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium against the Buffalo Bills and it was a great one at that. In fact, Harvin’s performance Saturday night might just have secured his spot on the 53-man roster once again.
In total, Harvin, originally selected by the Steelers in the seventh round of the 2021 NFL Draft out of Georgia Tech, punted five times Saturday night with all five of those going inside the Bills’ 20-yard-line.
While Harvin registered just a 38.2-yard average on those five punts against the Bills, that number is a bit deceptive because of where he was punting from on the field. In fact, three of Harvin’s five punts came with the original line of scrimmage being on the Bills’ side of the field.
Harvin’s long punt Saturday night was 52 yards and that was from the Steelers’ 40 yard-line. It was fielded at the Bills’ eight-yard-line and returned for just two yards thanks to a nice special teams tackle by WR Dez Fitzpatrick. That was the only punt returned of the five as three others were fair caught with one other being downed at the Bills’ six yard-line.
This summer, Harvin has been doing battle against P Braden Mann, claimed off waivers by the Steelers from the New York Jets back in April. Mann, like Harvin, is a former Ray Guy Award winner in college.
In the Steelers’ preseason opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Mann handled all of the punting duties. He punted six times in that contest for an average of 45.7 yards. Just two of his six punts against the Buccaneers were inside Tampa Bay’s 20 yard-line. His long punt in that game, 51-yards, was a result of a nice bounce after hitting a line-drive out of the Steelers’ end zone.
The biggest knock on Harvin after his first two NFL seasons is consistency. The same, however, goes for Mann. Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium, Harvin was very consistent and that was great to see.
The Steelers final preseason game will be played on the road Thursday night against the Atlanta Falcons. While we don’t yet know how the Steelers will handle the punting chores in that contest, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Harvin and Mann both get opportunities. It would be nice to see Harvin have to punt from deep in the Steelers’ own end of the field as that’s something he wasn’t forced to do Saturday night against the Bills.
For now, Harvin seems to be in control of his own destiny when it comes to his battle against Mann so here’s to hoping he can follow his Saturday night showing up with an equal or better one Thursday night against the Falcons.
